GVSU hosts Underground Railroad Conference

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Grand Valley State University will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission and the National Network to Freedom with a conference in that features prominent national scholars and authors on Sept. 26-27. The theme of the conference will be: “Underground Railroad in Michigan: A Decade of Discoveries.”
 
As part of the conference, historian Allen Guelzo will speak on the historic debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858 — debates that helped launch Lincoln to national prominence and shaped the discussion of slavery in the U.S. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Professor of History at Gettysburg College. He is formerly Dean of the Templeton Honors College and the Grace F. Kea Professor of American History at Eastern University.  He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.Div. from Philadelphia Theological Seminary.

Guelzo’s essays, reviews, and articles have appeared in the American Historical Review,  The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Wall Street Journal.  In 2000, his book Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President won both the Lincoln Prize and the Abraham Lincoln Institute Prize, and in 2005, his book Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America won both prizes again, making him the first double Lincoln Laureate in the history of both prizes. Guelzo has received several teaching and writing awards, including the American Library Association Choice Award, The Albert C. Outler Prize in Ecumenical Church History, and the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Graduate Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania.

Guelzo’s lecture will be in Grand Valley’s Loosemore Auditorium on Friday, September 26, 2008, at 12:45 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The rest of the conference runs Sept. 26-27 in Grand Valley's DeVos Center in Grand Rapids. Registration is $50, or $25 for students. After Sept. 5, the registration fee is $75. For more information, call (616) 331-8109 or visit www.gvsu.edu/ugrrdecade.

Other conference speakers include:
• Christopher Paul Curtis , internationally acclaimed children's author and winner of the Newbery Book Award for Bud Not Buddy and his latest, Elijah of Buxton , an underground railroad story for youth. 

• Betty DeRamus , author of Forbidden Fruit Love Stories from the Underground Railroad and a second book on the Underground Railroad slated for publication in 2008

• Karolyn Smardz Frost , archaeologist and author of the award winning chronicle of one slave couple's escape from Louisville, Kentucky through Michigan to freedom in Toronto titled I've Got a Home in Glory Land

• Anna-Lisa Cox , author of A Stronger Kinship , a history of an interracial Michigan community formed in the aftermath of the Underground Railroad and abolitionist movements. 

There will also be presentations by scholars and local custodians of Underground Railroad history. The conference will gather academic and amateur researchers from throughout Michigan and surrounding states, faculty and students of history at Grand Valley and other colleges and universities in the area, public school teachers in surrounding counties, and the interested public.

The National Network to Freedom and the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission were created to recover, document, and commemorate the history of the Underground Railroad and resistance to slavery in America and internationally. The conference is hosted by Grand Valley's African and African American Studies program, in collaboration with the Michigan Freedom Trail Commission, the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership.